Ariel Castro avoids death penalty, Roman Polanski Rape Victim Unveils Disturbing Photo

Roman Polanski Rape Victim Unveils Startling, Disturbing Photo for Book Cover   (Exclusive)
 7/24/2013 by Andy Lewis
"The Girl," Samantha Geimer's memoir about being raped by Roman Polanski in 1977 at age 13, features a picture the director took of her days before his assault.

After nearly 35 years of silence, the 13-year-old girl Roman Polanski raped in 1977 is finally telling her full story in The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski.

The Hollywood Reporter's exclusive first look at the cover of the book reveals Samantha Geimer's determination to reclaim her own story.

The cover is a haunting close-up shot of the teenage Geimer (then known by her maiden name, Samantha Gailey), taken on Feb. 20, 1977, less than three weeks before Polanski drugged and raped her at Jack Nicholson's Mulholland Drive home during a modeling shoot when he also gave her alcohol and a quaalude.

But the photo comes with a surprising twist: It was taken by Polanski himself.

He took the pictures during his first photo session with Geimer, now 50, at her home in Woodland Hills, a session in which the director coaxed the young girl to pose topless for him in some of the shots.

Using the photo was part of Geimer's strategy to reclaim her story.

Since the incident, the media has always illustrated the story with a picture of Polanski. Geimer finally wanted to put her own face on the story, and this picture reflected the starting point for her.

The pictures surfaced during Geimer's civil suit against Polanski, which she filed in 1988 and resulted in Polanski agreeing to pay her $500,000 plus interest (a sum Geimer struggled to collect).

As part of the civil suit, her attorney Lawrence Silver, who also contributes to the book, demanded Polanski turn over all the pictures he took. Even though the director turned over some photos (and all rights associated with them), Silver always believed others existed, and years later they were discovered....
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/roman-polanski-rape-victim-unveils-591015


Ariel Castro avoids death penalty with plea deal in Cleveland kidnappings
July 26, 2013

CLEVELAND -- A former Cleveland school bus driver, Ariel Castro, agreed today to plead guilty and be imprisoned for life for kidnapping and raping three women he held captive in his house for about a decade in one of the most sensational criminal cases in the United States in recent years.

At a court hearing, Ohio prosecutors in turn agreed that Castro will not be eligible for the death penalty over the disappearance of the women from 2002 to 2004 before they were freed in May along with a 6-year-old girl who, according to DNA evidence, was fathered by Castro with one of his captives.

Many Americans were alternately elated when the three women were freed from Castro's house in a rundown neighborhood of Cleveland on May 6, and stunned by the details of his brutal treatment of them. The women had been bound for periods of time in chains or ropes and endured starvation, beatings and sexual assaults, according to court documents and a police report.

The avoidance of a trial spares the women from having to testify....
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-castro-plea-deal-20130726,0,728821.story